Weekend at St Marks

[konrad]

Sunday the 10th.

Last Monday my dad calls me up to express his desire to get out on the water this weekend. I guess it’s been a few weeks since his last venture and really just needed his fix. I say this because normally that call doesn’t come until Thu or Fri so I knew he was itching to go. The plan was to take his G3 out to look for inshore flounder and sheephead. The weather was predicted to be a little cooler and the tides weren’t ideal so there wasn’t any real need to get out too early. We decided to meet at 8am in Tally and head down to the St Marks LH. On the boat ride out I was amazed how clear the water has gotten. Three weeks ago it was still the color of tea and now it was crystal clear. I was happy to see it this way but it was also frustrating at the same time. Normally throughout the summer I go scuba diving a couple times a month but those storms screwed that plan up. Now that the water is finally cleaned up it’s too cold to dive, even with a wet suit. Anyways we make it to our first spot at the entrance of a creek with a deep hole which has several boulders in it. Although this location didn’t produce any sheephead we did manage to pull out 2 flounder, 3 trout and 3 reds. Once the bite died down we moved over a few hundred yards to the next hole. There we hooked 3 more trout, 2 flounder and 1 red. The reds in both locations weren’t anything special, probably around 19” each and all were released. The trout were very healthy and about the same size as the reds of which were released too. The flounder however were……. Frustrating! My dad forgot to bring the net along so out of the 4 we hooked 3 got off at the boat as I was trying to lift them in. By now the tide was almost slack and we make the decision to try one more spot that’s produced quality sheep for us in the past. Well no love from the strip bandits, just a few 18” trout and another flounder which of course spits the hook as I’m trying to lift her out of the water. After about 10 min passed without a bite we pulled anchor to allow the boat to drift back into the creek. The next 100 yards was some of the most productive trout fishing I’ve seen all year although that really isn’t saying much. Trout isn’t a species I target too often. We picked up 20 more trout give or take a few on almost every cast we made. They were all good size too, between 19 to 22 inch. My dad also hooked 3 more flounder on that drift. Although we did manage to get all three in the boat only one was worth keeping. At that we called it a day and headed back to the landing. It was another day filled with memories fishing with my old man.

Saturday the 11th

Since Sat quenched my thirst for fishing the plan for Sun was snipe hunting with David (Salty Gator) and another buddy Ian. We decided to go below Ian’s house which sits on Lake Jackson behind the cattle gap. After a short walk all three of us realized pretty quickly this was going to be a pointless venture. The grass was almost as tall as we were with no mud that the snipe prefer. As David put it, “I know I only walked a hundred yards but it felt like a mile”. The vegetation was just way too thick so we needed to come up with an alternative option for the day. Since hunting was out why not go fishing? Ian wanted to stay home and sight in a few rifles so David and I stopped by my house to hook up the Jon boat. After another quick pit stop at Jerry’s for ice, beer and two extremely tasty Cuban sandwiches we arrived at the St Marks LH around 1:30. The first stop was a rock pile about a 100 yards south of a creek entrance. On my second cast I hook up with a nice red. As I’m fighting that fish David throws to the same location and hooks up with one too. About 5 min later David reels in another decent red. We’ve only been fishing for 10 min and already have 3 reds in the box. At this point David and I started commending ourselves on what a wise decision we made to go fishing. We pulled the anchor and started to drift out with the current. We boated and released 6 trout between 18 to 20 inches and one flounder measuring 18.5 inches. The water was like glass out there and we had been watching a large school of mullet about 500 yards out. We made the call to head that way and see if anything was harassing them. Shortly after stopping I toss my DOA grub at a rock pile. Next thing I see is a big wake heading toward my lure. Fish on!! It was a red around 25” which concluded our two man limit. Not too long afterwards David pulls another red to the boat. Although it wasn’t anything special it was a red. By now it’s a little after 3 and with a two man limit of reds and one nice flounder in the boat we decided to take it in. We both agree it’s been a good day and wanted to make it back to Tally before it got dark to clean fish. Between college, work and vacations I’ve seen many places in North America and I can’t think of any other place I would rather live than here. How many other places have the diversity we do as sportsman. Maybe I’m biased, maybe not but regardless this is a special place to live!


Weekends catch
9 reds
40 +/- trout
5 flounder (not counting the ones that came off boat side)
12 seabass

Sorry for not posting any pictures. The only ones that got taken were the ones salty Gator posted under (Gut Check).

[Salty Gator]

Triple post???

Cleaning table pic

[SHOWBOAT]

sounds like a nice weekend! Good work.

[konrad]

I don't know why it posted 3 times. I guess it's been too long since my last report and I forgot how it worked

[DEMON]

Good report. Sounds like one of those few and far between great weekends.

[fishinfool]

Very nice fellas.

[Williamsdad]

Well done guys. Sorry we missed ya, you were a bit further South.

[Harmsway]

[Skeeter-Bite]

SWEET!